26 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



reapers, cut large fields with an ox in one day. For this purpose a machine is made, carried upon two 

 wheels; the square surface has boards erected at the side, which, sloping outwards, make a wider space 

 above ; the board on the fore part is lower than the others; upon it there are a great many small teeth, 

 wide set in a row, answering to the height of the ears of the corn, and turned upwards at the ends; 

 on the back part of this machine two 



short shafts are fixed, like the poles 16 



of a litter ; to these an ox is yoked, 

 with his head to the machine, and 

 the yoke and traces likewise turned 

 the contrary way : he is well trained^ 

 and does not go faster than he is 

 driven. When this machine is pushed 

 through the standing corn, all the 

 ears are comprehended by the teeth, 

 and heaped up in the hollow part of 

 it, being cut off" from the straw, which 

 is left behind ; the driver setting it 

 higher or lower, as he finds it neces- 

 sary ; and thus, by a few goings and 

 returnings, the whole field is reaped. 

 This machine does very well in plain 

 and smooth fields, and in places 

 where there is no necessity for feed- 

 ing with straw." {Pal., lib. vii. tit. 2.) 

 A conjectural delineation of this ma- 

 chine (Jig. 16.) is given by Lasteyrie, 

 in his Collection des Machines, S(c. 



134. The Jtojnans did not bind their com into sheaves^, as is customary in northern cli- 

 mates. When cut it was in general sent directly to the area to be threshed ; or, if the 

 ears only were cropped, sent in baskets to the barn. Among the Jews, Egyptians, 

 and Greeks, the corn was bound in sheaves ; or at least some kinds were so treated, as 

 appears from the story of Ruth " gleaning among the sheaves ;" of Joseph's dream, in 

 which his " sheaf arose ;" and from the harvest represented by Homer, on one of the 

 compartments of Achilles's shield. \Il., lib. xviii. 550.) Reapers were set in bands on 

 the opposite sides of the field or plot, and worked towards the centre. As the land was 

 ploughed in the same manner from the sides to the middle, there was an open furrow 

 left there, to which the reapers hastened in the way of competition. A reaper was 

 expected to cut down a jugerum of wheat in a day and a half; of barley, legumes, and 

 medica or clover, in one day ; and of flax in three days. 



1 35. Threshing was performed in the area or threshing floor, a circular space of from 40 

 to 60 feet in diameter, in the open air, with a smooth hard surface. The floor was generally 

 made of well wrought clay mixed with amurca or the lees of oil ; sometimes it was 

 paved. It was generally placed near the nubUarium or barn, in order that, when a 

 sudden shower happened, during the process of threshing, the ears might be carried in 

 there out of the rain. Sometimes also the ears or unthreshed corn of the whole farm 

 were first put in this barn and carried out to the area afterwards. Varro and Columella 

 recommended that the situation of the area should be high and airy, and within sight of 

 the farmer or bailiff's house, to prevent fraud ; distant from gardens and orchards, 

 because, though dung and straw are beneficial to the roots of vegetables, they are de- 

 structive when they fall on their leaves." (^Var., lib. i. cap. 51.) 



136. The corn being spread over the area a foot or two 

 in thickness, was threshed or beaten out by the hoofs 

 of cattle, or horses driven round it, or dragging a ma- 

 chine over it. This machine, Varro informs us, was 

 ' made of a board, rough with stones or iron, with a 

 driver or great weight placed on it." A machine com- 

 posed of rollers studded with iron knobs, and furnished 

 with a seat for the driver {Jig. 17.), was used in the 

 Carthaginian territory. Sometimes also they threshed 

 with rods or flails. Far, or Indian corn (Z^a Mui/s 

 L.), was generally hand-picked, or passed through a 

 handmill. 



137. Corn was cleansed or winnowed by throwing it from one part of the floor to another 

 (in the wind when there was any), with a kind of shovel called ventUabrum ; another im- 

 plement, called a van, probably a kind of sieve, was used when there was no wind. After 

 being dressed, the corn was laid in the granary, and the straw either laid aside for litter, 

 or, what is not a little remarkable, " sprinkled with brine ; then, when dried, rolled up in 

 bundles, and so given to the oxen for hay." {Plin. Nat. Hist., lib. xviii. cap. 30.) 



138. Hay-making among the Romans was performed much in the same way as in 

 modern times. The meadows were mown when the flowers of the grass began to fade ; 

 " as it dries," says Varro, " it is turned with forks ; it is then tied up in bundles of four 

 pounds each, and carried home, and what is left strewed upon the meadow is raked 

 together, and added to the crop." " A good mower," Columella informs us, " cuts a 

 jugerum of meadow, and binds twelve hundred bundles of hay." It is probable that this 

 quantity, which is nearly two tons, was the produce per acre of a good crop. A second 

 crop was cut, called cordum, and was chiefly used for feeding sheep in winter. Hay 



